Alibaba Group’s Cainiao Network and RoboSense jointly released G Plus, the world’s first solid-state LiDAR unmanned logistics vehicle. Announced at Alibaba’s Cainiao Network 2018 Global Smart Logistics Summit, the G Plus driverless delivery vehicle provides solid-state LiDAR technology, RS-LiDAR-M1Pre, developed by China’s RoboSense. This is the first time that solid-state LiDAR has been used in the development of an unmanned vehicle.

Alibaba’s Cainiao G Plus is equipped with three RS-LiDAR-M1Pres, two in front and one in rear, to ensure the most powerful 3D perception for driving. This allows vehicles to clearly see the direction of travel: shape, distance, azimuth, travel speed, and direction of travel of pedestrians, cars, trucks, etc., as well as exact areas to drive, ensuring smooth flow of unmanned logistics vehicles in complex road environments.

RS-LiDAR-M1Pre is the first MEMS solid-state LiDAR launched by RoboSense. Presented at CES 2018, the core technology of the MEMS LiDAR is disruptive to traditional mechanical multi-beam radars. RS-LiDAR-M1Pre MEMS micro mirror scanning scheme requires only a few laser emitters and receivers to scan the MEMS micro-mirror in both directions because of the swing angle. Resolution is a very fine, high and vertical angle resolution of 0.2° throughout angle of view.

For traditional mechanical multi-beam LiDAR to achieve the same effect, they require more than a hundred laser transmitters and receivers to simultaneously rotate and scan, greatly increasing costs and reducing yield and reliability, making the advantages of MEMS solid-state LiDAR technology obvious. While improving the performance of LiDAR, cost savings is great, and miniaturization greatly improves stability.